The Dragonslayer’s party, a legendary team of heroes, were now walking down the early morning streets of Ma’bollo. The hero Kalaman Kampus calmly yet hastily walked to the port, while his frenzied teammates followed, questioning him all the way.

“Kalaman, is this some sort of joke?” Armei said, confusion in her voice. “What do you mean, ‘we have a cleric now’?”

“It means we have a cleric now,” Kalaman replied matter-of-factly.

“Did you hire one? If so, why didn’t you ask us first?”

“I forgot.”

In all honesty, even Jarvarax was surprised. Kalaman has never been the kind of person to seek out companionship. He’s said, time and time again, that he didn’t need any party members. Yet, he’s saying that he personally hired one. It was completely out-of-character for him.

“This is quite an interestin’ development, I’ll say,” Remina said. Her simultaneous surprise and intrigue were blatant on her face. “How’d you find this cleric guy, anyway? What’s so special about him that you’d go out of your way to recruit him?”

Kalaman was quiet for a few seconds. Yet another unnatural behavior from him. “I met her last night. She was looking for a party, so I hired her.”

“It’s a woman?!”

“Ahaha, it’s a woman! Oh my!”

Armei and Remina had two very different reactions to his statement. Jarvarax, meanwhile, just can’t wrap his head around Kalaman’s decision. He thought maybe the loss of Ques had made him realize the importance of a team healer, but he hasn’t shown any signs of that for the past three months. He hasn’t been gravely injured in that time, either. When Armei was rejecting those adventurers that tried to join, Kalaman didn’t really care whether they got it or not. In the end, the party wasn’t really a team Kalaman needed to manage, they were just people who followed and supported him.

So why now?

“What’s done is done,” Kalaman said. “We should hurry. The ship is about to leave port.”

“I don’t have any objections!” Remina said as she happily skipped along the road. “I’m excited to meet her!”

“...Well, if Kalaman chose her, then I guess she’ll be fine.” Armei averted her eyes and hung her head.

Two very different reactions.

“I have no objections to this, either,” Jarvarax said, not knowing how much of it he truly meant.

Still, there was no point thinking too hard about all this for now. For now, they just needed to focus on their mission.

It was a simple escort quest. A merchant ship had commissioned their party to guard them as they sailed for the port city of Tisah. It wasn’t rare to get commissions like this. Especially in times of unrest such as these, it was reassuring to have a powerful group protect you in the open seas. Though, it was strange that Jarvarax saw no escort request when he was looking at the town’s commission board in the past few days. The commissioner must’ve approached Kalaman directly.

After a few minutes’ walk, they finally arrive at the port. It was still very early in the morning, so there wasn’t much of a crowd present. As such, it was easy to spot where they were going.

It was a galleon of expensive make, large enough to easily house hundreds of people. That was to be expected. Only the wealthy would be able to commission a hero’s party.

Yet, despite not having stepped foot onto the ship, something felt out of place about it somehow. Jarvarax couldn’t really put his finger on what it was.

As they got closer, Jarvarax’s eyes focused onto a figure in the distance. She was sitting atop one of the boxes that were in front of the galleon, her legs swaying about as she stared at the ground waiting. She was young, maybe about seventeen or eighteen, if Jarvarax had to guess. It was easy to spot her with how much she stood out. Her white dress paired with her long pitch-black hair was a striking contrast.

She noticed the party—or rather, Kalaman—approach, and jumped down her box, patted the dust away from her dress, and stood formally with a smile. Up close, her bright yellow eyes were vividly striking.

“...You had your dressed cleaned,” Kalaman remarked as they finally reached her.

“Well, it’s going to be a long voyage, right?” the cleric replied. “I should at least look presentable.”

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It didn’t take long for Jarvarax to notice. Even Armei and Remina noticed too. This young woman was a complete novice—a beginner. It wasn’t how she acted that gave it away. In fact, she seemed quite confident with how she handled herself. But when you’ve been in this business for long enough, you can start to tell someone else’s strength just by looking. This cleric had not seen a lot of battles.

“Oh! Is this her, Kal?” Remina perked up as she giddily stared at the cleric.

“Ah, I should introduce myself, right?” The cleric gave a graceful and somewhat practiced bow; one you’d only really see done by trained priestesses. “My name is Nentonia Brava, a cleric. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Hi! I’m Remina Merryglow, a bard! Hello!” The halfling reciprocated her introduction with her boundless energy and a ton of smile. The cleric, Nentonia, smiled softly in kind.

“I am Alkith Jarvarax, the party ranger. It’s a pleasure.” Jarvarax placed his right hand on his left shoulder and bowed slightly, a traditional dragonborn greeting from his hometown.

Jarvarax had his reservations about Nentonia and the skill gap between her and the party, but he was cordial enough to return a proper greeting.

Some in the party, however, weren’t so refined.

“Kalaman, what is the meaning of this?” Armei asked, dumbfounded.

“I thought you said you were fine with my decision earlier,” Kalaman replied.

“I thought you’d be sensible enough to hire someone actually competent, not deadweight!”

“Mei, that’s a bit much!”

“Someone has to say it. This is—”

“Enough,” Kalaman glared at Armei. It wasn’t unusual for him to glare at his teammates from time to time when they were being unreasonable, but this one was especially cold.

Armei flinched and took a step back, but she managed to stand her ground. “...Kalaman, you need to think this through. We can’t let someone like her hold us back, especially where we’re going.”

“Don’t look down on me, elf. As if any of you are even capable of holding me back.”

A bold declaration, one he is more than able of backing up. No one there doubted that claim. With those words came pressure; a heavy air that weighed on everyone as if an anvil had been dropped on their shoulders. His words weren’t even all that malicious, yet Jarvarax could feel snakes run up his spine, biting down on his back from the inside-out.

This was a hero, Jarvarax thought. An object of admiration for children and the common folk, definitely. But terror is what sets them apart. It’s just that very few children ever see heroes from the enemy’s perspective. Jarvarax certainly didn’t want to be his enemy, that was for certain.

Without word, Kalaman Kampus continued walking towards the ship, expecting everyone to shut up and follow.

And that’s exactly what happened. Armei glared at Nentonia for a bit, but she said nothing. Jarvarax himself could see where she was coming from, though. He definitely wouldn’t trust this Nentonia Brava to be able to heal as efficiently as Ques could. It was a high bar to set her to, but now that she was on the party, Jarvarax decided to ensure she reached that level one day.

For now, he’ll just stay silent and quietly watch until he’s able to properly gauge what she’s capable of in combat.

The party followed Kalaman up the galleon’s gangplank, where at the top, a fancily dressed man was waiting with a shallow smile. He removed his hat and bowed as Kalaman approached.

“I’m glad you made it on time, oh great hero,” the man said. “You know me already, of course, but allow me to reintroduce myself for the sake of your teammates. My name is Nahar, the captain of this ship. I hope to make your acquaintance.”

They exchanged the usual pleasantries that accompanied missions such as these. Jarvarax’s attention, though, was directed behind captain Nahar. The doubts he had about the ship—that feeling of something being out of place—was finally justified. It took him a while to notice, but now that he did, it was strikingly odd.

The crew of the ship were scurrying about, breathing raggedly as they did their jobs with the utmost haste. Some of them were even trying to do multiple jobs at once. This wasn’t surprising, considering how few of them there were.

And that was surprising in-and-of-itself, considering the size of this ship.

This was a galleon, and a fairly large one at that. So why were there so few crewmates?

Eventually, Nahar led them to their quarters. They were all given different rooms. Empty rooms seemed to be in abundance on the ship, he noticed. After the ship began sailing, Jarvarax set down his things and went to Kalaman’s room. Armei and Remina seemed to have the same idea as well. Gathering around Kalaman was something the party did often, especially when they were placed in separate rooms during missions. It was much easier to discuss about their plans that way, after all.

When Jarvarax arrived at the room, only Armei and Remina were there.

“Where is he?” Jarvarax asked.

“He went to the captain to discuss our payment,” Armei answered. “He’s taking a while, though. I wonder what they could be talking about?”

“And the cleric?”

Armei’s eyes flinched as she refused to answer. It was obvious that talking about her put her in a bad mood.

“I met with her while I was headin’ here!” Remina answered for her to rid the room of the awkward silence. “She said she was feelin’ queasy from how the ship’s swayin’, so she went to the upper deck to catch a breather. Kinda reminds me of Mei back when she first rode a ship!”

“Shut up, Remina,” Armei said, clearly not flattered by the comparison. “And can you please stop bringing that up?”

“Don’t be like that! At least you found a kindred spirit in Nentonia, right?”

Armei drew a deep breath, stood up, and walked for the door. “I’m getting some fresh air, if you mind,” she said before leaving, her voice sounding more defensive that usual.

Then, the room was back to silence.

“Hm, this is troublesome, yes.” Remina crossed her arms.

“You are trying to get the two of them to get along, I presume?”

“It might take a while, I feel.”

Jarvarax sighed. “It will certainly take some time.”

“We’ll be on this ship for, like, three months, right? Plenty o’ time, if I do say so myself! They’ll be buddy-buddy ‘fore we reach Tisah, you’ll see.”

Jarvarax sat down, took out his handy notebook, and started doing his usual work. He could only hope that the tensions between Armei and Nentonia would resolve without incident.

“...Hm.”

Jarvarax grimaced at his notebook. Another spelling mistake. With all this stress, he’s afraid he’d lose his edge before they even reach shore.